Archangel
by Advent of Shadows
Summary: A small change in events during the mission to rescue Gaara causes Naruto to be sent to another dimension. Arriving in a world where chakra doesn't exist, Naruto finds that he must adapt to his new destiny as a mage. His calling in life may have changed, but the enormity of his destiny has not. Naruto/Mira
1. Complications

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail. This will be the only disclaimer.

Summary: A small change in events during the mission to rescue Gaara causes Naruto to be sent to another dimension. Arriving in a world where chakra doesn't exist, Naruto finds that he must adapt to his new destiny as a mage. His calling in life may have changed, but the enormity of his destiny has not.

Primary Pairing: Naruto/Mirajane

Warning: This is an M-rated fic. Do not be surprised if you find content that may not be suitable for young children. If there's anything that may offend the sensibilities of people mature enough to read M-rated fics, I will place a warning at the start of the chapter and leave markers to ensure that it can be skipped easily.

* * *

**1. Complications**

All things considered, it should have been a simple enough job.

Yes, their job had been to rescue Gaara from the Akatsuki members known as Sasori and Deidara, but complications were not exactly unusual for his team. The mission to the Land of Waves, the Chunin Exams, the search for Tsunade after the Third Hokage had died, and the mission to bring Sasuke back to the village were all proof of that.

Having to deal with a poisoned Kankuro, having to fight a weaker version of Itachi, and coming across the members of Akatsuki that attacked the Hidden Sand after the One-Tail was extracted from Gaara… that qualified as a bit more than a usual complication in Naruto's mind.

Despite the knowledge that Gaara was dead, he had been more than willing to chase after Deidara when he took Gaara's body and flew away from the Akatsuki base that they had found.

He hoped against hope that there was something that could be done for his fellow jinchuriki. And if he was wrong… well, he was still determined to show Gaara the proper respect that he deserved, even in death.

They had actually ended up getting Gaara's body back from the Akatsuki member and solidly defeating him.

In fact, the fight had appeared to be near an end when the rogue ninja ran towards the downed clay bird that he had been flying on earlier. One of his arms had been crushed to oblivion by Gaara, while the other had been torn off by the Kamui technique that Kakashi could use with his Mangekyo Sharingan.

Unfortunately, it seemed that they had misjudged their opponent, however.

He tore off a piece of the clay bird in his mouth and began chewing it.

Naruto could hear Neji give a warning that his chakra was building up at an alarming rate and that he was going to explode.

The seconds seemed to pass by too fast to even comprehend what was going on.

All that Naruto knew was that they had started to run away from their opponent just as he began to blow himself up.

His attention was not on the explosion, however.

No, it was on his comrades.

As always, they came first.

Much to his shock, Naruto saw Sakura trip and fall to the ground.

It was the worst possible moment for her to trip. Just as it was his worst possible moment to react without thinking.

With every ounce of speed he possessed, Naruto spun around and moved to Sakura's side.

Using every ounce of his strength, he grabbed Sakura and threw her towards Rock Lee.

Throwing her towards the spandex wearing chunin was done as a decision made on a subconscious level. Out of everyone there, he was the most likely person to protect her without even thinking about it.

He did not have time to consider such a thing, however.

The heat of the explosion could be felt on his back as he tried to move towards his comrades again.

Before he could even take a step, he saw that Kakashi had his Mangekyo Sharingan active, but that was not the thing that truly caught his attention.

No… it was the horrified look on Kakashi's face.

Everything went black within seconds as the Copy Ninja's Kamui send both Naruto and the explosion out to another dimension.

* * *

Naruto's eyes shot open as he finally regained consciousness. He immediately tried to sit up, but he felt pain shoot through him when he did, so he remained lying down.

Turning his head, he took in his surroundings as best as he could without being able to sit up or see too well as a result of it being dark. Still, he was able to make out that he was in a small room that resembled a hospital room, but he could tell right off the bad that it was not a hospital. The smell of medicine was easy to pick up, but it was warmer and quieter than any hospital he had ever been to.

He could remember everything up until he blacked out, but that did not make everything clear to him.

_I guess Kakashi-sensei couldn't send the explosion away before it hit me. At least I made sure to throw Sakura to Lee, or she'd probably be here with me._

The best he could come up with, he had been hit by the explosion just after he threw Sakura to the taijutsu specialist.

As pain shot through him again, a new question occurred to him.

_Why hasn't Sakura finished healing me? I'm not going to die from it or anything, but it has to be something she could fix._

"Sakura, are you around?" Naruto asked, finding it difficult to speak too loudly. Several minutes passed, and he received no answer.

_I could wait here until she gets back… but I really don't want to do that._

Naruto would have been the first person to admit that he was impatient, especially when he was willing to use his alternate means of healing, despite his hatred of it.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. _Give me some of your chakra, you damned fox! I'm not about to just lie around here when I could be walking around, so hurry up and pay your rent!_

Much to his surprise, he found that there was no immediate flow of chakra coming to him.

In fact, he could not feel his own chakra, let alone the fox's. The only thing that kept him from outright panicking was the knowledge that his chakra, along with the fox's, could be completely suppressed with fuinjutsu. He just did not know why that would be so.

He carefully turned in the bed he was lying in. As he did, he noticed that the only clothes he had on at that moment were a pair of torn up pants and his clearly visible boxers.

"I really did get hit messed up, didn't I?" he asked himself aloud. Looking at a table nearby, he saw his hip pouch, shuriken holder, and kunai holster were still intact, even though they were charred. His shirt was lying at the edge of the table, and he saw how damaged it was. It had about as much cloth left in at as a handkerchief had.

"Yes, you did," a voice that he had never heard before suddenly said.

Looking to the door, he saw an older woman looking at him. She had pink hair tied in a bun, red eyes, and she wore a red cloak over dark clothes. In the darkness, he could not see her in any finer detail than that.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked, clearly surprised. She looked as though she may have been related to Sakura because of the hair color, but he suspected that that was not the case.

"I should be asking you the same question, boy. Not many people could survive the injuries you sustained. Frankly, I don't know how you're even conscious yet. It's only been two days since I found you," she said with a suspicious look in her eyes.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said with a frown. "And why would I still be unconscious? I heal fast, so I don't know why I'm not better yet."

"No one heals that fast," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Unless, of course, this so called quick healing comes from that _thing_ inside you."

Naruto's eyes widened in shock at her words. He did not understand how she could possibly know what was inside of him.

"I know of no magic that could seal a demon inside of a human, but its very presence leaves a taint that it easy enough to recognize," she said as she shot him a look of annoyance.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked as he sat up. "Magic is just something you find in tales. Don't you mean jutsu?"

"Jutsu?" the woman asked, sounding mystified. "What are you talking about, boy?"

Naruto frowned at that. No one in the Elemental Nations could go without knowing what jutsu were.

"Where's Kakashi-sensei and Sakura? They should know what's going on," Naruto asked as a sense of foreboding came over him.

"I know of no one named Kakashi or Sakura," the woman said with a frown. "I found you in the middle of the forest in a crater formed by a large explosion. The damage you sustained would have been fatal for almost anyone else, but you're clearly not normal."

"I see," Naruto said as he sat back down on the bed. "When Kakashi-sensei used Kamui, I must have got caught in it. He said it could teleport his target to another dimension… but this is just ridiculous."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, clearly irritated.

"It's a long story," Naruto said as looked at the table next to the bed once again. He recognized a charred piece of metal on the table as part of his forehead protector.

"I have time," she said. "But since you're not a normal human, I'll at least let you know my name. I am Porlyusica."

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm apparently from another dimension," Naruto said, not surprised by what he assumed to be a skeptical look that she gave him.

In fact, he barely believed himself, but it was the only possibility that he could see.

"Start from the beginning," she said with an emotion in her voice that he could not recognize.

Though surprised by her _request_, Naruto immediately began to comply.

He was about to learn exactly how much of a complication his current situation was. There would be no doubt about which mission he had gone on for the Leaf that had the biggest complication of all, as a matter of fact.

* * *

Author's Note: It's nice to be back writing Naruto/Fairy Tail fanfiction. Recent chapters have really gotten me tempted to write this idea.

With all that said, I feel that I need to clarify a few things before you read anymore.

First off, chakra doesn't work in Earthland in this story. It's like Earthland magic in Edolas. With that said, I'm sure someone will ask why Naruto can use magic since he wasn't born in Earthland. If you really want to know, pm me and ask. It's a spoiler intended to come up later on.

Second off, the Naruto world will be touched upon later on in the story, but it will be a while before that happens.

Finally, this chapter takes place three years and three months before Lucy and Natsu meet. The next chapter takes place after a 15 month timeskip. I won't jump straight to the canon storyline, but I won't spend pointless time showing Naruto adjusting to Earthland and learning how to use magic either.


	2. Changing Jobs

**2. Changing Jobs**

_-July 1, X782_

Over a year had passed since Naruto arrived in Earthland.

Since arriving in this new world, he had changed quite a bit. Along with mental and emotional changes, he had changed a great deal physically. Whereas he was once a five foot, five inch tall boy, he now stood at five feet and nine inches tall and had matured into a young man. His spiky blond hair and brilliant blue eyes had changed little, but his choice of attire most certainly had.

When he was in his world, he wore orange partially because he liked it, but the main reason had been to be noticed. Now in a world where he did not really want to be noticed at the moment, he had taken to wearing all black. While that was still a bit noticeable, his complete inability to tell what clothes matched stopped him from trying anything else.

If he was to describe his time in this new world so far, he would have to admit that he had mixed feelings on it. On one hand, Earthland was actually a fairly pleasant world where he was treated normally. On the other hand, Earthland was not his home, and he had yet to find a way to return home or even to send a message.

After a month at Porlyusica's, Naruto had travelled throughout Fiore and even travelled all the way to Era to inquire about cross-dimensional magic.

He had actually begun learning to use magic after he left Porlyusica's. After all, he felt weak in Earthland as a result of his inability to use ninjutsu. It had taken about six months for him to even learn to access his magical power and channel it, but it had taken longer to learn to access and channel his chakra.

Back in January, Naruto had stopped actively looking for a way to return home. As much as it hurt to do so, he had come to the realization that he would never succeed if he kept trying the way he was.

Since then, he had thrown himself completely into his training. Every time he ran low on money, he would stop by the Akane Resort and pay the slot machines a visit. Surprisingly, he had retained his luck at gambling.

Had it not been for his skill at Transformation Magic, he probably would have been kicked out of the casino already. It was hard to come up with a reason to kick him out when he won as a different person each time.

Deciding to catch up on some news before leaving his hotel room, Naruto picked up the copy of Sorcerer Weekly that he had purchased the night before. He suspected that it was not the most accurate magazine around, but there was some interesting information in it. It was through the magazine that he had learned about the different mage guilds. There was generally always something in the magazine about Fairy Tail, Fiore's strongest guild. Phantom Lord, the second strongest, and Lamia Scale, the third strongest, were mentioned quite often as well, but neither one seemed to cause as much mayhem as Fairy Tail.

He sighed wistfully as he saw the article on the up and coming _Titania_. He had heard of her before, though the moniker had not been applied yet. Porlyusica had mentioned her once. The next time he had heard about her, he had been shocked to learn that she was an S-class mage by the age of fifteen. The article he had just read about her seemed to paint her as the strongest female in any of the legal guilds.

He idly wondered how true that was.

There did not seem to be much news in this week's edition. It seemed that a good portion of the magazine was full of pictures of bikini-clad centerfolds. The only one that he recognized was Jenny Realight. The others were just a few new girls from Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale, Quatro Cerberus, and Mermaid Heel.

As a guy, it was practically expected that he look at that section of the magazine.

Looking at the picture of the one girl that he recognized, he could not help but think about the first time he had seen her picture. It had been during the previous year. She had started showing up in it after her predecessor and guild mate, Karen Lilica, had been killed by a member of a dark guild while on a job. That article had stuck with him because it hinted at the darkness that lay beneath even the peaceful society that he had witnessed in his travels of Earthland.

"Wherever you go, there will always be conflict," he mused as he shut the magazine and left his room.

* * *

After leaving his hotel room, he went out to one of the local stories, Akane Armory.

He had been there a few times before when he needed kunai and shuriken that could withstand contact with a magic sword. After all, there was no point in using a weapon if any attempt to use it as intended resulted in its destruction.

Naruto had to admit that there was one area of magic that he already liked over its ninja equivalent: Requip. He knew how to great storage seals and could actually get them to work with magic, but being able to summon a weapon without even touching a seal was extremely useful.

However, Requip was not his main form of magic. It was a means to an end. That was all.

Stopping into the store, he waved at the old man behind the bar.

"Hey, is it done?" he asked.

The old man smiled as he reached underneath the counter and withdrew a sheathed katana.

The katana's hilt was more than long enough for him to hold it in both hands and was wrapped in white cloth. The tsuba, or hand guard, was made from a silver colored circular disc that had the spiral emblem he used to wear on his back engraved on it. And the scabbard was solid white.

Picking it up and unsheathing it, Naruto saw the bright silver with the word _Peacemaker_ engraved on it.

"It looks great," Naruto said as he sheathed it. He then placed a sack of one hundred thousand jewels on the counter in front of him. "Thanks for the sword. It came out just like I wanted it to."

"Pleasure doing business with you," the old man said as Naruto using his Requip Magic to put the sword away.

Nodding, Naruto made his way out of the shop and started heading through the little town. He had plans to go to Hargeon once he picked up his sword.

The sound of running suddenly caught his attention.

Worry started to fill Naruto as he saw several people running towards the Akane Resort down the road from Magnolia with looks of panic on their faces.

"What's going on?" he asked with a frown as they neared him.

One of the men stopped, breathing heavily. "We were attacked by some Gorians on the way here. They destroyed our caravan, captured a few of our people, and chased us. We need help."

Gorians, also known as Forest Vulcans, were a rather nasty breed of creature as far as Naruto was concerned. They survived by employing Take-Over Magic against their victims, which were normally humans. He failed to understand how they used it on humans and but never took the form of humans, but that was not a matter he wanted to discuss at the present.

"How many did they take?" Naruto asked as he steeled himself.

"Three," the man said with a confused expression on his face.

"I'll see if I can get them back," Naruto said as he took off running towards the forest.

As he ran, Naruto had to admit that he disliked certain aspects about lacking chakra, such as being able to use chakra to enhance his speed and jumping capabilities. Being able to walk up walls and run on water was nice as well, but he did not need either of those abilities at the present.

Sliding to a stop about a mile down the road, he saw the smashed caravan, but the Gorians were not there.

Actually, one was.

Naruto jumped into the air and spun around just before a fist went flying through the spot where he had been standing. Gorians definitely had strength and large fists on their side, but Naruto had plenty on his side as well.

"Light Beam," he said, pointing his right hand at the Gorian like it was a gun. A globe of light formed around the tips of his index and middle fingers before a gold beam of energy shot from it. It went through the Gorian's forehead, killing it.

He would have knocked it unconscious under normal circumstances, but he could tell that it had not performed a Take-Over recently. He was decent at sensing magical power, and a Gorian's magical power was always elevated after performing a Take-Over due to the fact that it involved absorbing a life.

Looking around, he sensed a concentration of magical power in the forest and ran towards it.

Upon arriving, he saw three unconscious humans lying on the ground with four Gorians standing off to the side. It appeared that they were arguing, which would make sense due to the fact that it was impossible for four Gorians to "share" three targets.

"Light Beam," Naruto said with the spell prepared in both hands. He instantly killed two of the four Gorians with his spells.

The other two immediately ran towards him and tried to punch him.

Jumping into the air, Naruto dodged their attacks. With a small smile, he spun around in the air and delivered a powerful kick that struck them both and sent them sprawling back.

Naruto lifted both hands and fired a Light Beam through the heads of both of the monsters.

Walking over to the unconscious caravan workers, Naruto found himself wishing that he could create shadow clones in this new world.

Sighing, he laid one of the men across his left shoulder, laid the other man across his right shoulder, and picked the woman up in his arms.

Despite not having chakra anymore, that did not stop Naruto from being faster and stronger than most people.

Running back to the town, Naruto was welcomed with dumbfounded expressions. He carefully set the woman on the ground before placing the men next to them.

"They're unconscious, and the Gorians that attacked you guys are dead," Naruto said as he turned his back to them and started walking away.

"Wait!" said the man that told him about the situation earlier. "I can't thank you enough. Please take this reward. I was going to give it to a guild and have them take care of the Gorians, but there was no way they could have gotten here in time to save any of our people."

Taking the bag from the man, he allowed a small smile to appear on his face.

"It would be rude to refuse," he said as he put the back in his pocket. "Just be careful when you go back to your caravan. It looked like most of the wagons only took some minor damage and can probably be salvaged, but there's no guarantee that there were only five Gorians in the forest. I'm leaving town, so I won't be around if something like this happens again."

As the man began to profusely thank Naruto, the blond walked away.

He was still a little surprised that they had insisted he be paid, but he was not complaining.

In fact, he thought he may have a new profession in the waiting. Fighting the Gorians, regardless of how weak they were, was actually exciting. He had fought some before in his travels, but now that he had been paid to eliminate some, the thought of actually making a living doing it sounded good. At the very least, it would allow him to practice putting his powers to practical use and kill some time until an answer regarding his situation came to light.

* * *

Author's Note: Not much seems to happen in this chapter, but I wanted to write this anyways. As much as going straight to the real action would be fun, I feel that it is important to see a little of what he's been up to before that happens, along with a small showing of what he's capable of.

Also, I want to address the supposed cliche of Naruto being lucky when it comes to gambling. Believe it or not, that's canon... to an extent. In the manga, he is shown walking up to a slot machine and getting a jackpot on his first attempt. That's where the basis of him being some kind of gambling god in fanon. Personally, I think he won because he karma has to give him something. Naruto's practically had a few mountains dropped on him by fate already.

On one final note, I want to address the pairing a bit more clearly. It will only be Naruto/Mira, so don't think I'm implying another girl or anything. No, what I want to say is that I'm not pairing him with the sweet and nice Mirajane of the canon series. I'm pairing him with Demon Mira, the S-class badass. Saying this reveals more than I would have liked, but this is the type of information that I personally like to have ahead of time.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	3. The Beast

**3. The Beast**

_-November 7, X782_

Naruto's career as a mage had been going fairly well since that day at Akane Resort. He had made less money than when he gambled, but he actually enjoyed it much more.

Seeing as he was not a member of a guild, he was not recognized as a fully trained mage, but he did not actually advertize himself as a mage.

On average, he did one job a week and dealt with wild animals, Vulcans, Gorians, Lizardmen, and even a Green Wyvern. Vulcans and Gorians were one thing, but he was not exactly fond of dealing with Lizardmen. He was even less fond of Wyvern after he dealt with one.

He understood why he had been warned that only fully trained mages should fight a Wyvern. It was resistant to all of his spells, forcing him to rely on his weapons. As a result of that fight, he had been injured worse than he had been since his arrival in Earthland.

He had recently taken some time off from his work to work on learning some more magic. After all, he had busied himself so much with jobs, honing his skills with his katana, and doing more physical conditioning that he had not had time to learn a new spell in a little while.

If there was one thing to be said about spells, it was that they took longer to learn than jutsu but were much easier to cast on average.

He idly wondered what would have happened if he had worked as hard learning jutsu as he did learning magic. After all, he had already learned eight spells and was halfway though mastering a ninth spell, despite having only learned to access and channel his magical power a year ago.

He was broken out of his ponderings as he sensed a high concentration of magical power.

Looking out to the horizon, he saw smoke. The concentration of magical power that he had sensed had come from the area that the smoke was rising from.

Against his better judgment, Naruto began to run towards the smoke.

His sensory abilities were not fully developed, but he thought that there was something wrong up ahead.

As Naruto made his way to the source of the smoke, he found a small village that was on fire. He came to a stop before he got too close to the village though. The concentration of magical power that he had sensed earlier was near.

At that moment, he was on a small cliff. If he ran straight, jumped off of it, and turned right, he would have a direct path to the village.

However, his attention was on something that was walking towards the end of the cliff. It was absolutely massive in size. It had yellow, scaled feet with four black claws on them, blue legs, red fur on its upper body, a light green stomach and chest, long and pointed ears, white hair, what appeared to be a white beard, and a pair of demonic horns. Its eyes glowed purple.

He carefully moved to the end of the cliff so that it was facing him, but it was not looking at him. It was looking at the ground below the cliff. His curiosity got the better of him.

Creeping to the edge, he saw that there was a white haired teenager sitting on the ground. She appeared to be injured. He was a little curious as to why she was only wearing black boots that went past her knees, a short purple skirt, and what appeared to be a black bra that was held up by traps that crossed right above her chest and went around her neck. However, he knew that it was not the time to wonder about why a girl was dressed a certain way.

Standing a few yards in front of her was a girl with short white hair that was wearing a red dress with brown knee-high boots and pink armlets. She had her arms outstretched as though she was offering it a hug.

"Let's go home," the girl said as in a cheerful voice, though he could detect a hint of worry.

In response, the beast raised its arm and prepared to strike her.

Naruto knew that its attack would be fatal for most people. The girl before him did not even come up to its knee.

It was not an ideal terrain for him to fight on. It was nearly composed entirely of rocks, and once he jumped down, so that he was able to keep the girls away from the monster, he could not be able to easily regain a height advantage.

Lifting his right hand a sphere of golden energy formed.

The first offensive spell that he learned was Light Beam, but he did not normally use it the way it was intended to be used. He had modified the technique to fire a thin beam from two fingers that could puncture a hole through six inches of solid rock. The original technique was not designed for penetration or cutting. It caused blunt force.

Unfortunately, his preferred spell might have been able to kill the monster, but its hand would have already been in motion and would have struck the girl before it could fall to the ground.

"Light Beam," he said, firing a large beam of Light Magic at the monster. It struck the monster center mass and threw it back a dozen yards.

Using the short window of time that his spell had given him, Naruto quickly jumped down, landing in front of the girls.

"Can you two move?" he asked as kept his eyes on the monster. "I might be able to take care of it, but I'm not too sure. It looks like I just pissed it off."

"Unfortunately, we can't let you _take care _of him. That's our brother," the older girl said as her sister helped her to her feet. "We use Take-Over Magic. He tried to protect me by using it against the Beast, but he can't control it."

Naruto inwardly cursed as he sent another Light Beam at the monster. Even if killing the possessed mage in front of his sisters was not a horrible idea, he did not know if he could bring himself to kill the mage.

"If I knock him out, will he revert back to your brother?" Naruto asked. He was familiar with Vulcans and Gorians doing that if they had just peformed a Take-Over recently, but he was not sure if it would work in this case.

"Yeah, that would work," the older one said. "But neither one of us can help. I'm out of magical power, and my sister doesn't have spells that can do that."

Nodding, Naruto formed a triangle with his hands. "I haven't mastered this spell yet, so here goes nothing. Light Blast," he said.

His magical power spiked as a powerful blast of golden energy shot from his hands and hit the monster. It was thrown back and slammed into the ground.

_It worked… kind of._

He dropped to his knees, panting. The spell was still far from mastered, so he had poured too much magical power into the spell in order to ensure that it was strong enough. It had the side effect of leaving him exhausted and burning the palms of his hands with the energy from the attack that was expelled out to the sides when it was released. He doubted that he could close his hands without wincing at the moment.

"Are you okay?" the younger girl asked, looking carefully at him before her eyes moved to his hands.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Naruto said, using his ability Requip to retrieve some bandages. Before he could even try to wrap his hands, the girl took the bandages and wrapped his hands for him.

"Thanks," he muttered.

Looking over at the downed monster, he saw that it was turning into a rather large man with spiky white hair.

"Make sure he's okay," the older girl said

At that, the younger girl ran over to the man and checked his pulse. She looked back with a radiant smile and said, "He's just unconscious."

"I have to thank you for what you did."

Naruto turned and faced the girl behind him at that.

"You saved my sister's life and you saved my brother from _the Beast_. If you had not shown up, then I don't know what would have happened." Something seemed to occur to her at that moment, and her worried tone was replaced with a slightly more cheerful one. "It wasn't a good time to introduce ourselves when you showed up, but I'm Mirajane Strauss. That girl is Lisanna, my little sister. And the guy over there is my brother, Elfman."

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He did not see any harm in telling her his full name.

"Is there any way we can repay you for what you did today?" Mirajane asked as she looked him in the eyes.

The instant that they made eye contact, Naruto saw turmoil within her. Guilt and helplessness were clear in her eyes.

"I didn't do this for a reward," Naruto said as he shook his head. "You three don't owe me anything."

"That's why you should get a reward," Mirajane replied. "Someone who only does the right thing when they get something in return doesn't deserve anything."

Naruto did not say anything in response to that. He was quickly coming to the conclusion that he would lose this argument.

"Come with us to our guild. Slaying _the Beast_ was an S-class job. If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't even be able to return to collect the reward. We probably would have failed the job, actually, since Elfman would have completely lost himself to _the Beast_. I'll give you my share of the reward."

Glancing at the one named Lisanna, Naruto felt his eyes widen.

"You're from Fairy Tail," he said as he returned his eyes to Mirajane. "I was actually thinking about trying to join Fairy Tail. It's getting difficult to learn more magic on my own, and it's not that easy finding jobs since I'm not in a guild. If you want to repay me, don't worry about reward money. I'd like to join Fairy Tail. If you can make that happen, you can consider your debt repaid."

It was true that he wanted to join a guild to make it easier for him to learn new spells and have easy access to jobs, but he had not actually planned on trying to join one just yet.

However, when opportunity decided to come knocking, Naruto did not intend to ask it to come back later.

She stared at him for a few seconds before allowing a small smile to grace her face. "I'm one of Fairy Tail's four S-class mages. Once we get to Magnolia, I guarantee the Master will let you join."

"Onibus isn't too far from here," Naruto noted as he rose to his feet and moved towards the still unconscious Elfman. He carefully picked the man up and laid him across his left shoulder, gritting his teeth in pain every second from the moment he picked Elfman up to the moment he let go of him. "I'm ready whenever you two are."

They stared at him dumbfounded for a second, wondering how he could seem to effortless lift their rather large brother, despite the fact that he did not actually look like he was physically strong.

Catching what they were doing, they started to follow after him.

* * *

"So, is there a reason we're heading to Magnolia right away instead of going to the hospital in Onibus?" Naruto asked an hour later as he sat in his seat on the train. He had a window seat with the still unconscious Elfman across from him, while Mirajane sat next to him and Lisanna sat next to her brother.

"Our injuries aren't serious, so it won't hurt to wait. Plus, the hospital is Magnolia is better equipped to deal with mages, whereas the one in Onibus is geared towards those without magic. Plus, the guild gets a discount at the hospital in Magnolia," Mirajane explained.

"Is it because of frequent visits?" Naruto asked as his lips twitched. Lisanna appeared to be suppressing laughter, while Mirajane merely appeared to be amused.

Stirring in his seat, Elfman opened his eyes and looked around.

"Calm down, we're all fine," Mirajane said as she looked at her brother. "We're on the train back to Magnolia."

"What happened?" he asked as he saw that she looked to be injured. He also noticed the person sitting across from him had his hands bandaged.

"I was careless, and _the Beast_ managed to injure me. You saved me by using your Take-Over Magic on it. Do you remember that much?" she asked patiently.

Naruto understood what she was doing. She needed to be patient because he was about to realize that he had nearly killed his sisters. Jiraiya had done something similar before he remembered going into his four-tailed state and nearly killing his teacher.

Elfman's eyes went wide as his memories came surging back to me.

"Don't blame yourself," Naruto said with a smile, surprising younger man. The young man's situation was different than his own had been, but he felt that he knew what to say to reassure him. "You did what you had to in order to save your sister. And don't worry about what you almost did or could have done. When it comes right down to it, you had a choice. You could save your sister and risk being overwhelmed, or you could let it kill her. You made the right decision, and everyone made it out relatively unharmed."

Elfman lowered his head and wiped his eyes with his hands. "Thank you for everything you did. I can never thank you enough for protecting my sisters when I was unable to. You are a real man."

"Never say never," Naruto said, shaking his head. "I'll be joining Fairy Tail, and I might lose it if you keep thanking me for the rest of my life." He allowed a grin to show as he finished talking, earning a weak chuckle from Elfman.

"If you ever need anything, just ask. You have my word as a man," Elfman said.

Looking at Lisanna, Naruto said, "Please don't tell me you're going to try to pay me back too." He actually sounded like he was begging when he said it, earning a few laughs.

"I'll keep a friend of mine from challenging you to any fights for a few months. I'm sure that'll repay any debt that there is between us," Lisanna said with a mischievous smile.

"Consider yourself lucky," Mirajane said as she looked at him. "The person she's talking about regularly challenges people to fights just to see how strong he is compared to everyone else."

Naruto suddenly pictured Rock Lee and his similar attitude before smiling fondly. "So far, your guild sounds like a lot of fun."

"You don't even know the half of it," she said with a wistful smile.

* * *

About an hour and a half later, the train arrived at the train station in Magnolia.

As soon as it stopped, Naruto found him looking out the window, his attention focused on the highest concentration of magical power that he had ever sensed.

"Are you okay?" Mirajane asked, looking at him with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Naruto said as he rose to his feet. "I can sense magical power, so I was just caught off guard. I think I just sensed your guild."

"That's strange," she said. "It's pretty late. I'm surprised that anyone would still be at the guild."

"Let's head to the hospital now," he said, changing the subject. He helped Elfman to his feet, knocking that the rather large sixteen year old probably had at least one broken rib.

"I'm not hurt. Do you want me to go and tell the Master we're back?" Lisanna asked.

"Yeah, we should probably tell him what happened before anyone else finds out that we're in town," Mirajane said with a nod.

Once they were off the train, Lisanna took off running, while Naruto and Elfman followed Mirajane to the hospital.

After they had reached the hospital, the three mages had been taken to a room that was large enough for them to all be taken care of in. Unfortunately, Naruto was unable to convince them that he was fine after a nurse saw his bandaged hands, so even he had received some medical attention.

It was after he and Mirajane had been taken care of that a short man that was nearly bald with only the outer rims of his head containing white hair. He also had a thick white mustache.

Naruto immediately saw that Lisanna was behind him, but he was more focused on a revelation than anything else. The moment that he had seen the man, he had realized that the vast source of magical power that he had sensed from the train was not a guild. It was the small man that had just walked into the room.

"Master, it's good to see you," Mirajane said with smile.

"It's good to see you as well, Mira," he replied. "I was surprised to receive a visit from LIsanna. I hope that you are alright." His eyes seemed to move in Naruto's direction a little more often than the young man was comfortable with.

"We are, but if it hadn't been for Naruto, we would be much worse off," Mirajane answered as she looked down.

His eyes focused on Naruto intently at that. "You wouldn't be Naruto Uzumaki, now would you?"

Naruto's eyes widened at that. He did not know how the man even knew his name.

"Porlyusica mentioned you when we spoke last. I've heard a little about you since then. You were in Era last year, inquiring about forms of magic that are only considered theoretical at this point in time. I also heard about your recent exploits as an independent mage. You've saved quite a few lives in the last several months," he said thoughtfully. "I am Makarov Dreyar. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I didn't realize that anyone would know so much about me," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "It's an honor to meet you as well though. I've heard of you, but I don't stay as well informed as you, apparently."

The old man chuckled at that. "That's fine. But we are not here about past actions. I want to thank you for helping Mira and her siblings. They would be sorely missed if anything happened to them."

"Speaking of that," Mira interrupted. "I told Naruto I'd talk to you about him joining the guild."

"Oh?" Makarov asked, sounding pleased.

"Yeah, I thought it would be fun," Naruto said with a grin.

"I'm sure it will be," Makarov said. "Very well then, you can join. I'll take you by the guild tonight so you can take the mark. But first, I want to hear what happened."

With that, Mirajane began to tell Makarov all about the job.

* * *

Author's Note: I know it may sound odd that I said that I'm pairing Naruto with Demon Mira last chapter when she's acting nice this chapter. It's important to understand that Mira will treat Naruto different than most people. However, her reason for acting nice to everyone in this chapter is that she's shaken. She realizes that she came close to losing Lisanna, along with coming close to possibly losing her own life and Elfman losing his sense of self to _the Beast._ You and I know that she wouldn't have died and Elfman would have eventually reverted back to himself, but she doesn't know that.

Anyways, I think the chapter came out fairly well. I normally would have had them arrive at the guild and have him ask to join there, but I realized that the sun was down when Elfman lost himself to the Beast. So it made more sense to me for it to be done how I did it.

Next chapter, you'll get to see everyone's reactions to meeting Naruto. However, I do want to say that they will be keeping the details of the job under wraps. I imagine that after a close call like that, they wouldn't want it to have to hear anyone openly discuss how Elfman almost killed his sister. It would have to be painful to hear.

Well, that's about it for now. Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	4. Fairy Tail

**4. Fairy Tail**

_-November 8 X782_

The first ones in the guild the next day were Naruto and Makarov. The former had been the actual first one, having slept on a cot in the basement.

"So, is there anyone I should be watchful of before everyone gets here?" Naruto asked, looking at the old mage.

"Yes," Makarov said thoughtfully. "I'd normally warn a new recruit about four individuals in particular. However, I don't think I need to warn you about Mira. She's normally a little rebellious, sarcastic, and abrasive, but even though I doubt she'll act like she did yesterday all the time around you, I don't believe that she'll give you any troubles. Your actions yesterday will affect the dynamic between you two for good."

Naruto was aware of a good portion of what Makarov had said. On the train to Magnolia, Mira and Lisanna had told him a little about the former's moniker and reputation in the guild. "And the others?" he asked.

"Well, the first one to be watchful of is Erza Scarlet. You've probably heard of her. As it stands, she's the youngest S-class mage in Fairy Tail's history, and no one is sure who is stronger, her or Mira. As it stands, they are rivals and tend to argue at least once a week, though it used to be more than once a day. But most importantly for you, she is a stickler for the rules and is much less tolerant of rule breaking than anyone else in the guild. She regularly scolds everyone in the guild that has done something wrong when she arrives in town. She's currently on a job, however," Makarov explained. "And then there's Natsu Dragneel. He's not an S-class mage like Erza and Mira are, but he is hot headed and enjoys challenging anyone he perceives as strong to a fight. He has incredible potential and wields a rare form of magic, Fire Dragon Slayer Magic."

Naruto's eyes widened at the last bit of information. "Dragon Slayer Magic," he asked.

"Yes, he was raised and taught by a fire dragon by the name of Igneel. He's been looking for him ever since he disappeared back in July of X777," Makarov answered. "If you're not familiar with that brand of magic, it'll be easier to see what he can do than to explain it. Just be glad that you use Light Magic and not Fire Magic. He can eat fire, be it natural or magical. As a result, that's one branch of magic that is useless against him."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing Lisanna agreed to stop him from challenging me for a while," Naruto said with a grin, earning a chuckle from Makarov.

"The last one that you should be warned about is different than the others. It's a member by the name of Gray Fullbuster. I only warn you of him because he picked up a habit of stripping without realizing it. He got it from the one that taught him the Ice-Make branch of Molding Magic. So if you see a black haired kid about a year younger than you suddenly decide to strip, either ignore him or mention something about his clothes," Makarov said. "That's all the important stuff. You'll learn everything else with experience."

"Sounds good," Naruto said with a nod as he glanced down at his right shoulder. The Fairy Tail mark was clear on his shoulder. He had actually worn one of his sleeveless shirts just to keep the mark uncovered.

His attention shifted quickly to the door as it opened.

He took note of two men that appeared to be in their early to mid thirties. One had bluish black hair with stubble that took the shape of a goatee and the other was a clean shaven man with brown hair that protruded forward from the top of his head. He idly noted that the second man could never walk into a glass door and hit his face due to how far his hair stuck out in front of him.

"Macao, Wakaba, this is our newest member, Naruto Uzumaki," Makarov said with a nod of his head. "Naruto, these men are Macao Conbolt and Wakaba Mine. They work together in a team and are some of our most senior members."

"Nice to meet you," Macao said with Wakaba nodding in agreement. "I had no idea we were getting a new member."

"I worked independently from any guilds for a while," Naruto said with a sheepish look on his face. "I happened to be near a village where the Strauss siblings were fighting some monster. I gave them a head, and they offered to talk to the Master about me joining."

Makarov held back a chuckle. It seemed that Naruto was skilled at telling the truth without telling the whole truth. It had been his suggestion that the full details about the job be kept between the Strauss siblings, Naruto, and him. While he thought it was a rather successful job with not much going wrong, he could understand that conversations about him losing a battle of wills against _the Beast_ and nearly harming his little sister was hard for Elfman to hear.

"You must be strong if you could help out in a mission like that one," Macao commented.

"Not really," Naruto said, shaking his head. "I just showed up when both sides were exhausted, and I still managed to injure my hands when I used the only spell that seemed like it would work."

"What kind of magic do you use?" Wakaba asked.

"I use Light Magic," Naruto explained, creating a globe of light on the palm of his hand. "I can use Transformation Magic, Requip, and a little Sword Magic as well, but I mainly use Light Magic. My Sword Magic actually uses my Light Magic."

Makarov looked interested in that. He knew what kind of magic Naruto mainly used, but he had never mentioned Transformation or Sword Magic. He at least knew that the young man could use Requip, seeing as how Lisanna mentioned him requipping a roll of bandages the previous night.

"That's not a commonly used kind of magic," Macao said thoughtfully. "What caused you to want to learn that instead of something else? Most people don't even realize that Light or Darkness are useful elements."

Naruto closed his eyes for a moment, thinking on how to answer. He had actually chosen Light over every other element because of the Nine-Tails. Even though it could not influence him beyond whispering things in the back of his mind, he had sought the only element that he believed would allow him to truly protect himself from its influence.

"I understand the true power of the light and dark than most people," Naruto said after he opened his eyes. The way he said it left no doubt in their minds that he had truly experienced both ends of the spectrum and had walked away from it with understanding.

With that, Macao and Wakaba took seats at a nearby table. It was not easy for either of them to think of anything to say in that situation.

"So how much does it cost to be part of the guild? I've heard that guilds normally take a cut from each job and have to be paid fees for being a member, but I didn't think to ask Mira what it's like here," Naruto asked, changing the subject.

"It's not much," Makarov said, sounding pleased that they were no longer in an awkward situation. "We don't charge a yearly fee, but we do take a ten percent cut out of the monetary rewards that you receive from jobs. You can also pay for meals and drinks before you leave for the day or pay for it all at the end of the month."

"That's simple enough," Naruto said thoughtfully. He then glanced at the second floor. "What exactly is up there? You showed me the Request Board down here, but you didn't say anything about the second floor. Is it just another place to sit?"

"I knew that I was forgetting something," Makarov said as he shook his head. "The second floor definitely has chairs and tables where some people can eat at. There is also another Request Board up there. However, the second floor is exclusively for those members of Fairy Tail that have been given the title of S-Class. There are only five people that may even step foot up there, and I am one of them. You know of Mira and Erza, so there are only two people that can go up there that I don't think you know about. One of them is the Ace of Fairy Tail, Gildarts Clive. He left a year ago to take two jobs that are ranked above S-Class. The other is Laxus Dreyar, my grandson. He's out of town on a job as well, but you'll probably see him within the next month.

"So Mira is one of the five strongest mages in the guild?" Naruto asked. Logically, he knew that already, seeing as she was an S-Class mage and Makarov had said that he was not sure who was stronger, her or Erza. However, it hard to imagine her being one of the strongest after he met her the way she did. It left him wondering exactly how strong _the Beast_ had been. The only logical conclusion that he could come up with was that it really had been just as exhausted as Mira had been in order for him to defeat it. He had a feeling that any of the mages in the room could beat him with little effort. And in Makarov's case, _little effort_ meant effortlessly.

"She is," Makarov said with a nod of his head. "Keep in mind, however, that she joined the guild four years ago and has trained extensively to reach the point she has. While you may not believe yourself to be strong, I see that you have great potential."

Much like Hiruzen Sarutobi, Makarov seemed to be able to tell what he was thinking with a single look at him.

"A year," Naruto said. At the questioning look he received, he said, "A year ago, I first learned how to access and channel my magic."

Makarov looked shocked at that response, but he did not say anything.

"How does someone even become an S-Class mage? It sounds like it's more of a position than just a ranking of skill level," Naruto asked.

"We actually have a yearly trial to see if anyone is worthy of the title," Makarov answered. "It's at the end of the year. When you see people fighting over jobs, you'll know it's coming up. People try to impress me by doing as many jobs as possible right before I choose who will take part in the trial. Once it starts, you'll find that it's not exactly easy to get a job from the board."

"That's fine," Naruto said with a shrug. "I want to take some time to train anyways, and I do have enough money to last me for a few months at least. I just need to find an apartment now."

"That's good," Makarov said. "It would be for the best if you spent the time doing something other than jobs. Naturally, I cannot even consider you for this year's trial due to your inexperience. If you work hard, you might earn a spot next year, however."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding. He also decided that he wanted to at least become strong enough to stand a chance at attempting it the next year.

His attention turned to the doors suddenly as the opened. He saw Mirajane and her siblings in the doorway just before he heard her speak.

"Good, you're here."

"Where else would I be?" Naruto asked. He thought he heard Macao mutter something to Wakaba about her never showing up so early.

"Nowhere," Mira said, shaking her head. "Can I talk to you out back?" Without waiting for an answer, she walked back out of the building.

"Wow, she actually asked," Macao said.

"Kind of," Naruto said as he rose to his feet and followed her, waving at Elfman and Lisanna as he passed them.

He walked around to the back, where Mira was waiting for him at the water's edge.

"What's going on?" he asked.

She allowed a brief smile to show before her face tightened up into a serious expression. "How would you like to be my partner?"

The question left Naruto dumbstruck. He had absolutely no idea what exactly she was talking about.

Seeing the confusion, she fiercely shook her head. There was at least one connotation of her question that she did not want him to think she meant.

"Mages tend to work in teams. It's not as common among S-class mages. Gildarts, Laxus, and Erza don't work in teams unless they absolutely have to. That's generally because of either the dangers that S-class jobs pose to teammates or because the mage in question prefers to work alone. You saw the results of the former yesterday," Mira explained.

Naruto nodded, thinking about how Lisanna and Elfman had been in serious danger when he showed up.

"Last night, I talked to Elfman and Lisanna. Elfman decided that he did not want to do anymore S-class jobs until he mastered the ability to use a Full-Body Transformation, and we all came to the conclusion that Lisanna is simply not ready for jobs of that caliber and won't be for a while. Even though she possesses a much higher degree of control over her Take-Over than Elfman does, what he can control already makes him a stronger mage," she said before looking him in his eyes. "We've decided that we won't be working together as a team anymore due to the vast difference in our levels of ability and our personal desires."

Realization dawned in Naruto's eyes.

"You can't be serious. I'd just get in your way," he argued. He could not deny that the thought pleased him though.

"If I planned on taking you on S-class jobs right now, you would," Mira agreed, but he could see conviction in her eyes. "However, you have the potential to be the perfect partner for me. I spent all night thinking about it. In six months, I believe that you will be strong enough to help me without slowing me down on all but the most difficult S-class jobs. By the time you could undergo the S-Class Promotion Trial, you and I would be close enough in strength to be a true S-Class team."

"Exactly how can you be so sure of those things?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. He really liked the sound of what she was saying, but she had not seen much of his capabilities or how fast he learned spells yet.

"The elements of Light and Darkness are a paradox," Mira said with a slight smile. "I use Take-Over Magic to enter a form that increases my physical abilities and my magical power, but I don't rely on hand to hand combat once I'm in the form. After I transform, I use Darkness Magic to attack. However, I do not immediately gain the ability to use Darkness Magic upon transforming. It is something I had to train to learn to use. And it is because of my ability to use Darkness Magic that I can teach you to use Light Magic. They are both the same and the opposite. The simplest way to explain it is that they are used the same way but are different forms of energy. Because of this, I can teach you to do anything with Light Magic that I can do with Darkness Magic."

Her reasoning was sound, he would give her that. However, she had failed to full answer him.

"Even if you can teach me as you say, how can you be sure that it can happen in the time frames that you gave?" Naruto asked.

Mira gave him _the look_. Every guy knows that look. It's the one that tells him to shut up and just listen to the woman in question.

"Good," she said once she saw that he was going to stop arguing. "Now, do you want to be part of a two person team with me?"

"Yes," Naruto answered without any sign of hesitation. He may not have know her well yet, but there was no one in Fairy Tail that he knew better than her so far.

"Let's go back inside then," Mira said cheerfully, nearly giving Naruto whiplash from her quick change in emotions. "You probably need to find an apartment since you're new to town. Do you need to go on any jobs first, or can we get started training tomorrow?"

"I'm good for a while," Naruto answered.

"Good," she said as she led him back to the guild. Upon entering, she froze, however.

Since they left to have their talk, the guild had seemed to fill up, but Mira's attention seemed to be focused on a girl standing near the bar wearing armor and a skirt.

"That is Erza Scarlet," Mira said, when she noticed that he was looking at the same person she was. "I thought she was still out of town. She must have finished her job early."

Naruto nodded, remembering what Makarov had said about Erza and Mira.

It was at that moment that Erza turned and saw them. At first, it looked like she was going to say something to Mira. However, a brief look of surprise crossed her face as she looked at Naruto. It seemed to take longer for her face to make the expression than it actually lasted.

She began to walk towards them at the same rate of speed that they walked toward her.

"I don't believe we've met. I'm Erza," the red haired mage said as she offered her hand to Naruto.

"That's what Mira was just telling me," Naruto said as he took her hand and shook it.

From beside him, Mira had to hold back laughter as she saw the look in Erza's eyes. It seemed that she had been looking for a name, but Naruto had not given it. She did not believe that he realized what he was doing, but he had definitely infuriated her.

"Are you a new member to the guild?" she asked politely.

"I think so," Naruto answered. "I've slept since I joined, but I'm probably still new enough to be called new."

People were staring at Naruto now. She intimidated most people, so it was nearly unheard of for someone to answer the way he was doing. It was far more casual than most would have dared to.

Seeing the possibility of Erza blowing up on her new partner, Mira decided to intervene. "Erza, this is Naruto. He and I will be working as a team for now on."

With just those words, jaws dropped were not exactly an uncommon site in the guild hall. Hearing that Mira was forming a team with someone completely new to the guild could only be described as shocking. It certainly implied that he was either strong or would become strong.

A cursory glance around the room revealed who Natsu was to Naruto. After all, there was only one guy in the room that looked like he wanted to challenge him to a fight _and_ was being held back by Lisanna.

"Interesting," Erza said as he looked him over carefully. "I'm surprised to hear that you're forming a new time."

"It was a mutual decision," Mira said flatly.

"Perhaps, we should see how strong your partner is. He looks to be a fair mage, but I don't exactly see an improvement yet," Erza said.

Naruto bristled slightly at that, but he calmed himself immediately.

Mira looked at Naruto, and their eyes met for a moment. The question in Mira's eyes was clear enough, as was Naruto's answer.

"By your estimation, I should have him face off against my brother and my sister to see which team is stronger," Mira said, rolling her eyes. "However, my brother and I were both injured in yesterday in the S-Class job we were on. Since we can't do things as you would like, perhaps he should fight someone that is at least as skilled as Elfman."

Her eyes settled on a half naked mage with his Fairy Tail mark on his chest. Naruto assumed that he was Gray Fullbuster.

"You think he can beat Gray?" Erza asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," Mira said matter-of-factly, surprising most of the people around, including Naruto.

"I guess it can't be helped," Makarov said suddenly. "I will act as a judge. I'm sure everyone wants to see how Naruto will do."

Everyone started following Makarov out of the backdoors at that.

Before Naruto could follow, Mira leaned over and whispered in his ear, "I need to see where you're at in terms of skill anyways. Since my arm probably won't be fully healed for a month, I need to see how you do against someone who is both strong and around the same age as you. I think you can win, but I don't really care one way or another. What's important is that I see where you're at so that I can figure out exactly what we need to have you work on."

"I'll win," Naruto said with a grin.

* * *

Once they were behind the guild, Naruto and Gray assumed positions about twenty-five yards away from each other. Gray had assumed a stance with his right fist pressed against his left palm, while Naruto stood casually with his thumbs hooked in his pockets.

Everyone that was at the guild that day was lined up ahead the back wall of the guild. Mira and Elfman stood on one side of the doors, while Erza, Natsu, and Lisanna stood on the other side. In front of the doors, halfway between the fighters and the line of observers, Makarov stood with his eyes on Naruto.

"Begin," Makarov said.

"Ice-Make: Ice Lance," Gray said immediately, bringing both hands forward in an overlapping position. Suddenly, it seemed that there were a dozen spears of ice moving towards him. Each one was easily capable of curving too.

"Interesting," Naruto said as he raised his right hand and opened it. Nine globes of light came out of it and arranged themselves in front of him in three rows of three. There was about three feet between each of the globes. Just as the attack was nearing him, the globes flashed.

In place of each globe of light, a large round shield made of golden light formed. The shields overlapped, ensuring that there were no gaps between the shields.

One of the bright sides about the shields was that they were also transparent enough to watch his enemy though.

Gray's eyes widened at the sudden appearance of the shields. His surprise turned to shock as the shields withstood his attack without so much as cracking.

"My turn?" Naruto asked as he waved his hand, dismissing the shields. A globe of light formed around the index and middle fingers of his right hand, and he pointed it at Gray.

"Ice-Make: Shield," Gray called out, quickly creating a shield in front of him that resembled a flower.

Instead of Naruto firing his attack, he pointed it so that it would miss. "Light Beam," he said, firing his special version of the spell. It punctured a hole through the shield, and he then moved his hand in the motion of an arch.

Much to the further shock of the ice mage, most of his shield fell apart as his Light Beam cut through it. When it was done, the shield went from being twice as tall and nine times as wide as he was to being less than six inches taller and three times as wide as he was.

"I don't really have many spells, but I'm fairly good with the ones I do," Naruto said with a grin. He then held his right hand out, palm forward. "Light Beam."

A normal Light Beam shot from his hand and slammed into the shield, leaving a noticeable crack in it.

Mira found herself smiling as she watched him. He was even stronger than she had thought he was.

Gray suddenly jumped to the side and slammed his hands to the ground. "Ice-Make: Floor!"

Naruto's grin dropped as he saw the ground start turning to a sheet of ice. But he had an idea. He ran towards the ice and slid across it, going down in a sitting position as he started to gather his magical power for a regular Light Beam. A single unshielded attack could take an enemy out.

"Ice-Make: Hammer," Gray said, making Naruto look up. A large hammer made of ice had formed above him and was starting to drop.

Naruto slammed his left hand to the ground, sending a wave of Light Magic through the ground and shattering the ice where he was. He then rolled from his position and slammed his left palm to the ground, pushing him to his feet. His katana appeared in his right hand before the hammer had even fallen six inches.

"Sword Magic: Light Slash," Naruto said, swinging the katana and releasing a blade of light from it. He then formed a shield made from light directly above his head, just barely saving himself from being hit by one of the two pieces of the hammer that fell to the ground.

"Light Magic, Requip, and Sword Magic?" Gray asked, though it sounded more like he was thinking aloud.

"Light Blade," Naruto muttered, causing Light Magic to surround the blade of his katana. He had already used all of his combat based spells, so he wanted to end things quickly.

"Ice-Make: Sword," Gray said, creating a two-handed longsword made from ice. "If you wanted a sword fight, you should have said something." He began to sprint towards Naruto at that. It seemed that the ice floor had begun to rapidly disappear once he formed the sword.

"I suppose I should have," Naruto said as he dashed towards him with his katana held in both hands.

Just as they were nearing each other, he said, "Blinding Light."

Bright light suddenly enveloped Naruto, causing Gray and many of the watchers to shield their eyes.

The next thing they knew, they were hearing Gray land on his back on the ground. Naruto was standing with his foot still extended, having just kicked the ice mage in the chest. The katana was no longer in his hands.

"I'm going to say that the match is over with," Makarov said loudly. "Naruto is the winner."

"It can't be over! A kick like that wouldn't really defeat him," Natsu argued.

"And what do you think would have happened if he had used his sword instead of a kick?" Makarov asked with a raised eyebrow. Shaking his head, he began to walk back into the guild. He was still thinking about what he had seen in the fight, however.

Naruto immediately walked over to Gray and offered him his hand.

Though surprised, Gray took his hand and stood up.

"You're strong," Gray said as he looked at Naruto carefully.

"It could have gone either way," Naruto said with a smile. "If you had aimed for a single spot with your first attack, you would have shattered my shield. You didn't hit any shield with more than two of your lances though."

"I realized that after you cut through my shield," Gray said as he thought about the fight. "How did you crack my shield though? That larger Light Beam you used shouldn't have been strong enough."

"When I compress my Light Beam into the one I used to cut your shield, it can punch a hole through stone. It can also cut through objects by burning through them. Simply put, I headed up your shield when I did that. If we ever fight again, make sure not to stop using your magic on the shield when I use my Light Beam," Naruto explained before he made his way back to Mira.

"Very impressive," she said as she looked at him appraisingly. "I suspected that it would be a close one, but I never expected it to be such a good fight."

"That's what I can do after a year of learning to use magic," Naruto said. "I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together after another year's time."

Erza watched the exchange with some interest. She suspected that there was more to the pair working together than Mira said.

* * *

Author's Note: There's another chapter of Archangel.

I hadn't actually planned for Naruto to fight Gray in this chapter, but I decided that I really wanted to right a fight between them for this chapter, so I did.

Now, I'm sure that someone may think that it was strange of me to say that Naruto isn't strong enough to take part in the S-Class Promotion Trial after he defeated Gray. However, this is two years before Gray took part in canon. He's a lot weaker than he is at the start of canon. Even if Naruto was strong enough, he hasn't been in the guild long enough for Makarov to trust him. There's a reason that Gajeel wasn't selected as a one of the eight contestants in the trial in canon, as you may remember. Though I do suspect the real reason was to ensure that both he and Levy did not age during the 7 year time-skip...

Anyways, the next chapter will be after about a month long time-skip. It'll start when Mira really starts helping Naruto train. He will have Light Blast and a new spell mastered at the beginning of next chapter, but Mira was limited on how much she could help Naruto until after the X782 S-Class Promotion Trial. Until about a week before it, her arm was broken. Then, she had to get the arm back into shape before she went to help out with the test.

I am not going to show any flashbacks of the test, by the way. Yes, Mira helped with it, but the only noteworthy thing that happened is canon: Mystogan becoming an S-Class mage.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	5. Training Begins

**5. Training Begins**

_-December 21, X782_

Naruto's first month and a half in Fairy Tail had been fairly enjoyable.

Although he would have liked it if Mira had taken his training at full force right from the start, she had explained that she would have to wait until after the S-Class Promotion Trial before she could really work on the more intense training. Her arm was still not fully healed, and she did have responsibilities.

That did not, however, stop her from helping him master Light Blast. She had even gone on to teach him another spell.

Unfortunately, she had to focus on the trial coming up after his third week in the guild. At the same time, most of the people in the guild were busy with jobs, trying to impress Makarov just as he had said on his first day in the guild.

During those days, he spent most of his time with Elfman, Lisanna, or Gray. None of them were trying to get selected for their own reasons. Gray had admitted that he would have tried, but being beaten by Naruto had opened his eyes.

Despite Mira not being there to oversee his training, Naruto continued to train a great deal. He fought Gray at least once every two days, allowing him to put his abilities to a practical use. With Elfman, the focus of training was actually on his partner's brother. Naruto saw that he was insecure about his weaknesses and had made it an effort to help him with Full-Body Transformations.

Elfman had actually made progress in their training. He had managed to fully transform into a Vulcan and still retain control. However, the transformation only lasted one minute, so he still had a great deal of room to improve.

Unlike with Gray and Elfman, Naruto rarely trained with Lisanna. The few times that they trained, she would simply use Animal Soul: Tigress, and they would engage in hand to hand combat. Most of the time, they merely hung out, playing games and fun while everyone else seemed to be so busy.

Mira had not been too happy at first, thinking that there was something going on between the two, but it quickly became clear that they were merely friends and had no desire to be anymore more, especially since Lisanna made it clear to everyone that she liked Natsu.

Once everyone that was taking place in the trial left, things became more laid back at the guild, and Naruto finally had a chance to meet everyone. The first three weeks, he had been training with Mira so much that he had not had the chance to really meet anyone.

Out of everyone that he met, the one who possessed the magic that Naruto liked the most was Max Alors. His Sand Magic reminded him of Gaara's jutsu.

But now, he was ready to begin his real training. He heard that everyone arrived home the previous night. And for the third year in a row, it seemed that someone had become an S-class mage. The new mage was a man by the name of Mystogan. Apparently, no one in the guild had seen his face, but it was known that he fought using staves.

As he arrived in the clearing in the East Forest that Mira had told him to go to, Naruto saw that his partner was already waiting for him.

"It's good to see that you're early," Mira said as she pointed her right index and middle fingers at him. A globe of darkness formed around their tips. "Defend yourself. Dark Shot." A bolt of darkness shot from her fingers towards him.

Naruto summoned a shield of light to block her attack. He immediately jumped back after forming it. Dark Shot, and Light Shot by extension, were nothing like Naruto's special Light Beam. They fired a bolt of energy that exploded upon making contact with a solid object.

Seconds before the spell hit his shield, he moved from behind the shield and launched a regular Light Beam at Mira.

"Dark Beam," Mira said, countering his spell with its counterpart. They released a small explosion upon colliding, but they otherwise canceled each other out. "Excellent work. Your reflexes are impressive."

Naruto smiled at that. He always enjoyed hearing things like that.

"Now, I'm not going to do this like you're expecting. Spending the next six months teaching you spell after spell would give you more moves to switch between in combat, but you wouldn't become as strong as you can be if I did that. Instead, I'll write you some spells out in advance. I want you to try to learn them on your own when I'm not around. If you're having trouble with a spell, feel free to ask for help, however," Mira explained. "For an S-Class mage, power and skill are important, but it is even more important to be able to think on your feet and to adapt to any threat that comes you way. As a result, we will spend most of our time in training fighting. But before we begin training like that, there is something that I need to teach you."

With that her hands became shrouded in darkness. "Your magic is based on long range combat right now. I assume that you use a sword to cover that weakness. However, swords do break. In order to eliminate the possibility of this becoming a weakness, I think it's time that you learn how to use your element to augment your fighting abilities. I first saw it done by Natsu as part of his Dragon Slayer Magic, but I've see fire and lightning mages capable of surrounding their hands in their element to augment their punches as well. I also know that Gray can do it with his ice, and even I regularly use it with my Darkness Magic when I'm using Satan Soul. I plan on teaching you to do the same."

Later that day, Mira learned how wrong she was about thinking that close ranged combat was a weakness of his when he defeated her, despite not being as experienced with the new form of combat.

At four o'clock that afternoon, Mira ended training for the day.

"I'm going to be stiff tomorrow," she said under her breath as she stretched her sore muscles. She had never expected him to be half as good as he was at hand to hand combat. As it was, she doubted that even Erza was as good at it as he was. Giving him the ability to augment the damage he could do with his hits was actually a bit much in her opinion. She suspected that it would be good for him though.

"So exactly when will we be training, and when will we be doing jobs?" Naruto asked.

"Good question," Mira said as she looked up at him. "For now, we'll be training every weekday from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon. You have weekends to do whatever you want, but if you want to do jobs, you'll need to do them after our training is done for the day or during the weekend. We won't start doing jobs as a team so soon. Once you've done S-Rank jobs, it's a bit of a disappointment to go down to the type of jobs you'll be doing. The jobs that we'll be focused on until you are skilled enough to do S-Rank jobs will be the ones designed for strong members of the guild that have not achieved S-Class, like Macao and Wakaba. They are jobs that are strongly recommended for teams of three or more mages but are not so difficult as to be labeled S-Class."

"I think you're right about your estimates now," Naruto said, thinking back to the time frames that she gave him for when he would be able to do S-Class jobs and when he would be close to her in strength.

"It's about time," Mira said with a glint in her eyes. "You should know by now that women are always right."

"Except for when they're Erza, right?" Naruto asked with a grin.

Mira laughed in response. "You're learning fast. What do you say we go hang out now that we're done here? Teams are for more than just training and doing jobs. They tend to spend more time together than any other guild mates, even when they're relaxing."

"That sounds good to me," Naruto said with a genuine smile. Not even his team in his world really wanted to spend free time with each other. Well… he wanted to spend time with Sakura, but that was a completely different matter. "Do you want to get washed up first? We could always go and meet somewhere."

"Sure, that might be for the best," Mira admitted. "How about I meet you at your apartment after I get a shower? We can decide where to go from there."

"You're in luck," Naruto said, pulling out a slip of paper from his pants pocket and handing it to her. "I actually had that to give to you anyways. I figured you'd want to know the address, so I wrote it down before I came this morning."

"That works for me," she said before she began walking towards town. "I'll see you soon."

* * *

It was shortly after Naruto got out of the shower that he heard knocking at the door.

Walking over to it, he opened the door and let Mira in.

"It's not much, but it's home for now," Naruto said as he gestured around. The front door led straight into the front room. It was sparsely furnished with only a couch, a coffee table, and a small bookshelf. The adjoining kitchen was easy to see from the front door, as were the two doors on the wall to Mira's left, which she assumed were to the bedroom and the bathroom.

"It's not a bad place," Mira said honestly. "It's no bigger than the one we had when we first joined Fairy Tail."

"Oh?" Naruto said, realizing that he did not know anything about Mira's past. She knew just as much about his, of course.

"You probably don't know much about anyone's past in Fairy Tail," Mira said, shaking her head. "To make things a little easier to understand, you need to realize that most of the members in Fairy Tail didn't have great beginnings. Take Cana Alberona for instance. I doubt you've personally met her yet, but she joined Fairy Tail ten years ago after her mother died. Then you have Gray. He joined Fairy Tail eight years ago after his parents and teacher died. You also have Erza, who joined under mysterious circumstances six years ago. All I know is that she had a rough enough past for her to have to get an artificial eye to replace one that was missing. And, of course, you have Natsu, who was raised by a dragon before it abandoned him over five years ago."

She took a deep breath after that and looked at him intently.

"And then four years ago, my parents died, leaving my siblings and I orphans. We joined Fairy Tail a few months after that," Mira said softly. "You've probably heard about my reputation in even more detail than I told you on the train after we first met. It was necessary to act the way I did. I had to protect my younger brother and sister. But in the end, I couldn't protect them. You did."

"You can't protect everyone," Naruto said solemnly. "No one can do everything. The moment that you try, you're destined to fail. Isn't that why we join guilds? To form bonds and to gain friends that we can depend on to share our burdens… that is the real purpose of Fairy Tail, is it not?"

Mira looked at him in surprise. "That's pretty insightful."

"I have my moments, rare as they are," he said with a chuckle. "Just remember that we're partners for now on. Also, I hope you don't completely change as a result of that job. I've heard people say that you've toned down since the incident, but I hope it stops like it is. This _demon_ persona of yours would be sorely missed if it completely went away. You are strong, intelligent, intimidating to those that would cross you, terrifying to your enemies, and command the respect of those around you. You impress me every day that I'm around you."

She looked away, but he thought she was smiling.

"What about you?" she asked, turning to face him again. The only emotion he saw was curiosity. "You are nearly as mysterious as Mystogan. No one knows anything about your past. Well… the Master knows about everything that happened after you were found in the forest by Fairy Tail's medical advisor.

Naruto swallowed and looked away. That was not a subject that he wished to discuss. That made it difficult when she had just given him information about her past though.

"I'll keep it brief for now. The full story isn't one that I can share easily," Naruto said. "I was orphaned on the day that I was born because of a demon that attacked my village. I had no one growing up. I was twelve years old when I was acknowledged for the first time as something other than a screw up. Over the years, it slowly started to change, but then I was caught in an explosion. When I woke up, I was in Porlyusica's house. I spent a while trying to figure out how to get back home, but I can't even begin to fathom how to go about it. I travelled around Fiore and even went to Era, looking for answers, but no one has even heard of the place I came from."

"I look forward to hearing the full story one day," Mira said as her eyes met his. He saw no anger in her eyes for not sharing the full story. Instead, he saw understanding, acceptance, and patience.

"It is a bit funny that my last three teachers have all had some variation of white hair though," Naruto suddenly said with a chuckle. "You're the only one that's not perverted though. The last one regularly peeped on girls in hot springs and wrote books using that for inspiration. The one before him read those books in public. And my teacher before him was also a little perverted, but he had dark hair."

Mira shook her head with a smile on her face. She normally would have said something about what his previous teachers did, but she recognized the reminiscent look on his face. She had no intention of speaking badly of anyone that he deeply missed, especially seeing as how she could sense a hint of disapproval when he spoke of his teachers' bad habits.

Realization suddenly dawned in her eyes, however. "I hope I'm not putting nose where it doesn't belong, but what did they teach you? You said you started learning magic a year ago."

"You're seriously asking after how we fought today?" Naruto asked with a grin. It was easy to deflect that answer for now, but he had to make sure that she did not wander back to it too soon. "The most important lessons that they taught me had nothing to do with fighting though. It was from my first teacher that I learned that I can only achieve my full potential if I train hard. It was from my second teacher that I learned that your comrades are more important than any single mission or job. And it was from my third teacher that I learned that the key to being great isn't power or skill. It's the guts to never give up. Mind you, they taught me more than that, but those are some of the most important things they taught me."

"They sound like they were good teachers," Mira said.

Naruto merely nodded in agreement.

"What do you say we head to the guild?" Mira suddenly suggested. "Cana said she would be there all day. She's always up for two things: alcohol and a game of cards."

"Did I mention that I have unnatural look at gambling?" Naruto asked with a grin.

"Let's see how it holds up then, now shall we?"

And with that, the pair made their way out of the apartment and headed towards the guild.

* * *

Author's Note: As you can see, this chapter was mainly focused on Naruto and Mira's interactions. I almost skipped straight to where Chapter 6 will be starting instead of having the pair go and hang out. But I really dislike starting a chapter after a one month time-skip and then having a three month time-skip halfway through the chapter.

The next chapter will take place three months after Naruto and Mira start training seriously. In short, it'll start with them finally taking jobs together.

As you may have noticed, I am making Naruto stronger at a faster rate than I normally do in once of these stories. Since Naruto and Mira are going to work together as a team without anyone else helping them, it makes sense for me to ensure that they are close to each other in terms of strength by the time X784 comes around. That's when Naruto really makes a name for himself, after all.

On another note, don't be surprised if I put up a lot of polls while I'm writing this story. I use them to measure readers' opinions. They don't really make any decisions for me, but they do allow me to make a more informed decision.

Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing.


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